Goblin Market

Question 1

How are the Goblin Men described as animalistic

Answer 1

One had a cat's face,
One whisked a tail,
...
One like a wombat prowled obtuse and furry,
One like a ratel tumbled hurry skcurry.

Question 2

What effect does describing the Goblin men as animalistic have

Answer 2

heir animal-like features highlight their base nature and their wild passions and desires.
Like animals, they are unpredictable and as their attack on Lizzie demonstrates, have the potential to become ferocious.
The fact that they are neither fully animal nor fully human emphasises the fact that they are unnatural and unrestrained.
It also increases the distinction that can be made between them and the two sisters.

Question 3

some key themes of Goblin market

Answer 3

women and feminity
sex
sin/ relgion
dangers of the market place

Question 4

What do several of Rosettis poems deal with

Answer 4

Women who have been seduced and abandoned

Question 5

When was the poem interpreted sexually

Answer 5

Not until the 20th C development of psychoanalytic criticism- especially Freudian that reviews/interpreters repositioned it as a sexual fantacy
initially though of a children’s literature

Question 6

what does Jonathan Cott say about Goblin Market

Answer 6

it is the most extreme and most beautifully elaborated example of repressed eroticism in children literature

Question 7

Where has an abridged version of the poem also featured

Answer 7

both Playboy, which calls itself entertainment for men and Pacific Comic which identifies its target audience with its cover designation ‘recommended for mature readers’ have published abridged versions of Goblin Market for adult sexual fantasists

Question 8

What work did Rosseti also engage in from 1859 -1870

Answer 8

Rossetti volunteer worker from with St Mary Magdalene Home for Fallen Women, Highgate Hill

Question 9

examples of sexual imagery in goblin market

Answer 9

She suck’d and suck’d and suck’d the more

Eat me, drink me, love me;

Question 10

What did Rosetti insist that it was not about

Answer 10

Rossetti insisted that sex and the loss of sexual purity were not central to Goblin Market

Question 11

What is the rhyme scheme

Answer 11

Generally ABAB - follows a simple fairy tale form

Question 12

What did Rosetti insist that it was not about

Answer 12

Rossetti insisted that sex and the loss of sexual purity were not central to Goblin Market

Question 13

What is the rhyme scheme

Answer 13

Generally ABAB - follows a simple fairy tale form

Question 14

Are men present in the world of the Goblin Market

Answer 14

appear to be completely absent
one of the only signs that they exist comes at the end when the sisters are wives

Morning and evening
Maids heard the goblins cry- only women can hear the Goblins
women faced challenges and temptations of which men were not aware

Question 15

What could the quote We must not look at goblin men,

We must not buy their fruits” be an implication of

Answer 15

This could be analogous to the widespread belief in Victorian Britain that young women should know nothing about sex, because even the barest knowledge could contaminate them and make them less pure.

Question 16

Is there evidence that the Goblins pose a threat

Answer 16

yes
Their looks were evil- 
Held her hands and squeezed their fruits
Against her mouth to make her eat.
attempted rape?

Question 17

in what ways could Laura be seen as a revolutionary figure

Answer 17

unlike most “fallen women” in Victorian fiction, Laura is neither killed off nor thrust into a convent, but is fully redeemed and allowed to complete the classic marriage plot.

Question 18

What did most victorian poetry about fallen women seem to assume

Answer 18

tended to caution that once fallen, always fallen.